Latest news with #JohnO'Donnell
Yahoo
06-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Johnnie-O Becomes Official NFL Licensee
RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnnie-O, the premium lifestyle brand known for blending East Coast classics with West Coast casual and a dose of Midwest grit, has been named an official licensee of the National Football League (NFL). The agreement will see Johnnie-O produce a curated collection of officially licensed products for all 32 NFL teams. The NFL line will feature 29 different styles, available for both men and women, ranging from polos and quarter-zips to elevated lifestyle apparel. Designed with the brand's signature blend of laid-back sophistication and functional performance, the collection offers a fresh, premium take on fan gear. "To be part of something as iconic and unifying as the NFL is a milestone for our brand and a true pinch-me moment," said John O'Donnell, founder of Johnnie-O. "I grew up a die-hard Chicago Bears fan, so this collaboration hits close to home. We're proud to join the NFL family and look forward to being part of fans' game day traditions—and bringing a touch of Johnnie-O style to NFL fans everywhere." This milestone announcement arrives as Johnnie-O celebrates its 20th anniversary—two decades after the debut of the Original 4-Button Polo. What started with that signature staple and a vision for timeless style has evolved into a nationally recognized lifestyle brand. Today, Johnnie-O's blend of quality, versatility, and personality is worn coast-to-coast by athletes, celebrities, and anyone who appreciates apparel that brings its "A" game. "Our licensed sports apparel continues to be a tremendous driver of success for Johnnie-O because fans never stop rooting for their teams," said Heath Hooper, VP of Licensed. "With the NFL now part of the licensed portfolio, Johnnie-O stands as the definitive year-round destination for premium licensed apparel." Each Johnnie-O piece serves up a signature dose of "Topspin"—thoughtful design details that put a clever spin on the classics. Whether it's the patented Tweener Button®, ingeniously tucked between the second and third buttons for just-right coverage, or premium fabrics built for movement and comfort, these signature touches turn everyday staples into instant favorites. It's this knack for blending function with surprise that has created a loyal following and made Johnnie-O stand out as the more interesting route in premium apparel. The licensing expansion into the NFL highlights the brand's growing business, which includes licensed collections with MLB, NHL, major golf events such as the upcoming 2025 Ryder Cup, more than 200 colleges and universities, and other sports leagues and events. The Johnnie-O NFL collection is available on NFL team shops & online stores, select DICK'S House of Sport stores, Rally House, and other major retailers nationwide. About Johnnie-O:Founded in 2005 by John O'Donnell in Santa Monica, CA, Johnnie-O is a premium lifestyle brand differentiated by its loyal and passionate consumer following, high-quality products with clever details and omnichannel leadership. Johnnie-O currently offers a range of premium apparel, footwear and accessories for men, women and boys. The collection includes polos and button-downs featuring the patented "Tweener Button," bottoms, swim, outerwear and a line of performance gear for the active lifestyle. Johnnie-O is available online at as well as at specialty retailers and golf and racquet clubs across the United States. For more information, visit or follow @johnnieobrand. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Johnnie-O Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Crypto giants set for EU green light amid growing regulatory rift, sources say
By Elizabeth Howcroft and John O'Donnell PARIS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Two of the world's largest cryptocurrency companies are poised to secure licences granting them access to operate across the European Union, as a rift grows among regulators over the speed and rigour of some countries' approvals, according to sources familiar with the matter. Under the EU's new Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which came into force earlier this year, member states can issue licences that allow crypto companies to operate throughout the 27-nation bloc, but some have raised concerns in closed-door meetings about the speed with which licences are being granted, two people familiar with those discussions said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. At stake is the oversight of the multi-trillion-dollar crypto industry, which regulators have long warned could facilitate fraud, market instability and illicit financial flows if it is not properly supervised. MiCA aims to bring crypto under the same regulatory umbrella as traditional finance, but some fear that uneven enforcement could undermine its goals. Gemini, a crypto trading platform founded by billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, is on the verge of receiving a licence to operate from Malta, the smallest country in the European Union, two people said. This follows Malta's earlier approvals of OKX and granted within weeks of the new regime's introduction. The pace of Malta's approvals has drawn scrutiny from other national regulators, who meet under the umbrella of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). France's AMF has publicly warned that ESMA's lack of direct authority could lead to a "regulatory race to the bottom". Another senior regulatory official, who did not wish to be identified, said that they were concerned about accepting licences granted in countries where regulators had fewer staff, citing Malta as one example. ESMA has scrutinized Malta's licensing process, with a report due to be circulated in the near future, said one of those people. A spokesperson for the Malta Financial Services Authority said it had granted four crypto licences so far and was able to move fast due to its past experience, adding that "expedited processing" was due to its "in-depth understanding acquired over these years". It said its local money laundering standards were strict. ESMA declined to comment. OKX said its application was "rigorous" and that compliance was a priority. SELF INTEREST? The regulatory debate has intensified with expectations that Luxembourg will soon grant a licence to Coinbase, the first U.S. crypto-focused company to join the S&P 500, one of the people said. While the application has been in progress for several months, one person pointed to the relatively modest size of Coinbase's planned operation in Luxembourg. A Coinbase spokesperson did not comment on its application but said it employed 200 in Europe and that it invested in staff to ensure operations were safe. The spokesperson said Luxembourg was a "high-bar, well respected global financial centre" and that Coinbase would hire more than 20 people there by the end of the year. Luxembourg's financial watchdog declined to comment. One person familiar with Luxembourg's thinking dismissed any suggestion that the country was lax and said some critics were rather motivated by self interest in a race to attract crypto firms. Coinbase's anticipated approval is seen as a setback for Ireland, where relations with the crypto industry have cooled. In 2023, Central Bank Governor Gabriel Makhlouf compared crypto to a Ponzi scheme, warning that 'most of the time when you gamble, you're actually losing.' The global cryptocurrency market is currently valued at roughly $3.3 trillion but it has seen crises, such as the collapse and fraud of top U.S. exchange FTX in 2022. The European Union has long had to contend with divergence between its members. The dispute is unfolding as European politicians consider granting greater powers to regulator ESMA. While the European Union is united as a trading bloc and writes much regulation centrally in Brussels, countries vie with each other to attract international businesses. ESMA head Verena Ross has also pushed publicly for more powers to oversee crypto, although one person familiar with discussions among EU politicians said several countries were sceptical. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The National
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Local heroes bringing hospital radio to Ayrshire for over 70 years
Ayr Hospital Radio (AHR) began broadcasting in 1953 and has provided more than seven decades of songs and chat of all styles for its listeners – and like many others, is serving up important entertainment and opportunities to this day. Plus, as another jingle adds, you'll find something to enjoy 'even if you're not in hospital'. From the home of Ayr United Football Club, Somerset Park, volunteer-led live matchday commentaries have been relayed to the local hospital hubs in South Ayrshire alongside scheduled shows of music ranging from soul, latest hits and classic favourites. READ MORE: Labour have 'given up' on by-election amid SNP-Reform contest, says John Swinney AHR chair John O'Donnell says that the running of this radio station is 'tailored to the needs of their listeners'. 'This service helps alleviate loneliness and anxiety, creating a sense of connection for patients who may feel isolated from the outside world,' he explains. For Niall Anderson, chair of the Hospital Broadcasting Service in Glasgow, hospital radio is a 'great training ground for future broadcasters' with household names such as George Bowie and Ken Bruce first heard here. 'I've been involved in hospital radio since the 1970s,' he says. 'The reason I've stayed is that I quickly saw the positive impact it had not only on listeners but also on those volunteering to deliver service. 'Originally hospital radio could only be heard using a headset installed at the bedside. These days we stream on the internet and not only does this mean higher sound quality, but it also allows real interaction between patients and their loved ones. 'For hospital radio to remain relevant, it needs to keep pace with the times and offer what people would expect from any radio station including features such as Listen Again – giving the chance to hear a show at a time that suits them.' Live football commentary is a key part of the puzzle. AHR has included visually impaired supporters at the Honest Men's home fixtures. O'Donnell believes this item offers a 'sense of normality and escapism.' (Image: Durham Hospital Radio) An 'inaugural match' against Dundee United in November 1953, according to club historian Duncan Carmichael, started this journey. An upgrade followed, with the opening of a studio in 1959 tucked away in the stadium's southwest corner hiding an interior that feels like you've stepped into a time capsule. One man's vital contribution in constructing this unit, and whose presence preserves the origins of the commentary relays, is that of former army and telecoms worker Willie Shields. At the age of 96, his services providing vivid and professional commentary in the role, as an Ayr supporter, means he still 'feels like a young boy'. He can still recall how he got himself up to this historic studio that is nearing its 66th anniversary. 'The room you're sitting in, I did all the electrical work and a fair bit of the woodwork for it, we built this ourselves,' he says. 'Being a commentator made you more interested in the club, and you were doing something for them. They didn't pay us at all, we were doing it for free, but we had to get the money in to go on air every time.' HBSA Radio's offering chimes with Shields's assessment. Based in Crosshouse since the mid-1970s, the second Ayrshire hospital broadcast service has provided audio descriptive commentary from rivals Kilmarnock Football Club from their home fixtures at Rugby Park since 2018. Station manager Mark Fisher believes that offering the commentary throughout the seven years has 'raised the profile'. He says: 'This has been great for listeners and has provided some amazing opportunities for our local volunteers to get into this very niche activity. The club is a huge part of local life, so it is great to be associated with them. 'The programmes are all presented by local people and we never air syndicated shows from elsewhere. Hospital radio is a valuable resource run by people from the community and hopefully that community benefits from it.' Community, engagement and uplifting others are the outstanding sentiments from the long-running radio broadcast systems throughout Scotland operating on a stalwart, voluntary-led basis. As AHR chair O'Donnell adds: 'Whether it is music, requests, football, cricket, or other major sporting occasions, the volunteers who run these stations bring dedication and enthusiasm ensuring that the content is relevant to those in care.'
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Europe to hand billions in frozen Russian cash to Western investors, sources say
By John O'Donnell BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Euroclear plans to seize and redistribute about 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) of Russia's funds that are frozen at the Belgian clearing firm after Moscow grabbed investor cash in Russia, according to documents seen by Reuters and people familiar with the matter. The money will be used to compensate Western investors after Moscow seized cash held in Russia in recent months, three people said, escalating attempts by both sides to recoup billions in funds affected by the war in Ukraine. Euroclear will redistribute 3 billion from a pool of 10 billion euros in cash belonging to Russian entities and individuals hit by European Union sanctions following Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, two of the people said. The move, reported in detail here for the first time, marks a new level of reprisal by Europe. The European Union changed its sanctions regime late last year, allowing a disbursement to Western investors in such circumstances. In the past, the West has engineered loans and payments to Ukraine from the interest on frozen Russian assets, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced as theft. The planned Belgian payout was triggered by Russian government orders to confiscate billions from Western investors last year. Euroclear has been under pressure from international investors to release money. Reuters could not determine which of them would benefit from payout. Euroclear in March gained clearance from Belgium, its principal legal authority, to make the payout, according to the people who spoke to Reuters. Euroclear has notified clients of the upcoming payments in an April 1 briefing document, reviewed by Reuters. "We received authorisation from our competent authority, to unfreeze the compensation amounts and make these available to our participants," the document said. Reuters could not establish the identity of the Russian owners whose assets will be seized. Belgium's government declined to comment, while Russia's finance ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Euroclear has emphasised that it implements sanctions but the company does not take decisions about the shape of sanctions or their lifting. The payments to Western investors won't dip into the more than 200 billion euros of Russian central bank reserves that have been frozen in the EU, the two people said. It will, however, reduce the stockpile of Russian wealth, that includes cash, shares and bonds, held almost entirely at Euroclear that gave the bloc leverage over Moscow. Some hoped frozen Russian assets could be used to rebuild Ukraine. Western investors have tens of billions of assets stranded in Russia from seized factories to cash. Europe's decision to release frozen Russian wealth in Europe to investors is viewed critically by some. "To seize Russian assets and give them to Western investors would be morally reprehensible," said Jacob Kirkegaard, a sanctions expert with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington-based think tank. "It would represent a political decision to prioritise Western businesses over the taxpayer. Any frozen assets that don't go to Ukraine's reconstruction will ... have to be covered by tax payers." BLOCKED The European Union froze hundreds of billions of Russian assets - including the central bank reserves - following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, in an unprecedented move that amounted to its single biggest penalty to Russia. Euroclear holds the lion's share of sanctioned Russian wealth in Europe - more than 180 billion euros. Getting that money back is important for Moscow and has prompted roughly 100 court actions against Euroclear, one of the people said. Reuters could not determine the status of those court cases. Moscow has warned last year that it would retaliate if its frozen assets were seized and used for Ukraine and made a change in the law earlier this year, allowing it to do so. In past months, Moscow has seized 3 billion euros of cash held by Euroclear at a depository in Russia to compensate Russian investors hit by Western sanctions, two of the people said. Clearstream, an arm of the German stock exchange that like Euroclear warehouses securities such as stocks and bonds for traders, also found itself in a similar situation. The Luxembourg-based firm will also make similar payouts from frozen Russian cash to Western investors but on a smaller scale, one person familiar with the matter said. The sum concerned is several hundred million euros, the person said. Clearstream declined to comment. Two people familiar with the case said it amounted to a swap of Western money frozen in Russia with Russian cash blocked in Europe, initiated by Moscow. Moscow's efforts to unlock its frozen assets come as its economy labours under a fourth year of international sanctions imposed because of the war. Russia continues to bomb Ukraine amid talks between Washington and Moscow to end the war, which have left Europe on the sidelines. ($1 = 0.8834 euros) (Additional reporting by Reuters in Moscow, Alex Marrow in London and Julia Payne in Brussels; editing by Elisa Martinuzzi and Daniel Flynn) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Removed Confederate monuments in Maryland to remain hidden, despite Trump executive order
BALTIMORE — The statue of Captain John O'Donnell, an 18th century merchant who enslaved dozens of Black people on his Maryland plantation, won't be returning to its former perch in Baltimore's Canton Square, despite an executive order last month from President Donald Trump. Neither will the four Confederate monuments removed from their pedestals in the dead of night in 2017 and later shipped to California to become part of a museum exhibit. Nor will the plaque formerly attached to a wall in the capitol rotunda honoring combatants on both sides of the Civil War. 'Whether or not the plaque qualifies under the president's executive order, it will not be returning to the State House,' Carter Elliott, senior press spokesperson for Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, wrote in a one-sentence email to The Baltimore Sun. Trump issued an executive order titled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History' on March 27 requiring the reinstallation of many Confederate monuments that were removed following the nationwide protests sparked by the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minnesota while in police custody. Trump's directive has raised questions about the fate of more than a dozen statues, plaques and grave markers spread throughout Maryland that honored people once perceived as heroes but now viewed by many as oppressors. But the executive order is limited only to monuments taken down after Jan. 1, 2020, and only to those under the control of the federal government. A Sun reporter inquired about the status of 13 monuments previously located in the Free State; a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of the Interior confirmed that all were removed from state, municipal or private property. The statues and grave markers 'are not NPS [National Park Service] or federally-managed lands,' J. Elizabeth Peace, a senior public affairs specialist for the department, wrote in an email. The first four monuments were taken down by former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh on June 16, 2017 — or 30 months before the start date specified by Trump's order — after a 'Unite the Right' rally in Virginia turned violent, causing the deaths of three people and injuring dozens. For the next six years, the monuments were held in an unsecured lot managed by the city Department of Transportation, where they were vandalized, according to an investigation conducted by the city's Office of the Inspector General. A police report was not filed until six months after the damage was discovered, and the city did not pursue an insurance claim to recoup the loss. The statues were later shipped to Los Angeles, where they are expected to be part of an exhibit opening in October in that city's Museum of Contemporary Art. A second wave of monument removals in Maryland took place in 2020 and 2021 in the wake of nationwide protests that erupted after a white police officer knelt on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes, killing him. They include: •A Confederate soldiers monument that stood in front of the Red Brick Courthouse in Rockville was defaced and knocked down June 16, 2020. It was later relocated to White's Ferry near the Virginia border, where it was vandalized again. The family owning the statue has since placed it into storage. •A Confederate soldier grave marker in front of Grace Episcopal Church in Silver Spring honored the remains of 17 unidentified Confederate soldiers. It was pulled down by protesters on June 17, 2020. •The remnants of a Confederate soldier statue was toppled and beheaded in Frederick's Mt. Olivet Cemetery. The damage was discovered on June 29, 2020. •The statue of Private Benjamin Welch Owens was knocked down outside Lothian's Mt. Calvary Anglican Church and spray-painted red. Owens had served in a Confederate Maryland military unit during the Civil War; the vandalism was found on July 3, 2020. •The statue of Christopher Columbus in Baltimore's Little Italy neighborhood was tipped over by protesters on July 3, 2020, then dumped into the Inner Harbor. •O'Donnell's monument was taken down from its plinth in O'Donnell Square on April 5, 2021, by Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott in response to a petition seeking the statue's removal that collected about 1,000 signatures. •A plaque memorializing Confederate Gen. John Winder stood outside the Wicomico County Courthouse on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It was removed by county officials June 12, 2021. •The plaque in the Maryland State House was removed on June 15, 2021, following a nearly yearlong effort by House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones. The plaque depicted the American and Confederate flags, and its inscription said the Maryland Civil War Centennial Commission 'did not attempt to decide who was right and who was wrong' in the conflict. •The 'Talbot Boys Statue' commemorating Talbot County residents who fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War was dislodged from its base outside the Easton County Courthouse on June 15, 2021, by county officials. They arranged for the statue to be relocated to a historic battlefield in Virginia. But not every Confederate monument in Maryland has been destroyed, relocated outside state borders or hidden away from public view. At least one memorial remains in Maryland, and it is on federal lands — the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee on horseback that looms over the Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg. But it's unlikely to be moving anytime soon. A bill to remove the Lee monument was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 28, 2024 by U.S. Rep. David Trone, a Democrat from Maryland, but failed to make it out of committee. -------------
